Member-only story
The Living Dead
Ode to My Sister, Jessica
After answering dozens of questions, I was finally cleared and accepted as a visitor. I waited in the lobby with my niece, too edgy to sit down, even though they told me it could be a while.
As I waited, all these glorious images flashed through my mind. Jessie taking me to Shakey’s Pizza Parlor when I was around six, trying to hide her jalapenos under my pepperoni. She probably spent her whole paycheck on me that day. I remember waiting on the dirt road for the bus to pick us up.
Jessie getting married and leaving with her new husband for him to report to the naval base in South Carolina, a world away, it seemed. We both cried our eyes out.
Jumping in the deep end of the pool, so excited to go swimming. The lifeguard had to go in after me, because I didn’t know how to swim. She held me close, even though I got her all wet.
Letting me pick out some of her 45 records, so I could listen to her 60’s music.
Then, there was the time when she asked me to come stay with her for a while after her second child was born. Even though she was exhausted, we managed to find plenty to laugh about.
Helping our parents move every, single time. We got so hot moving their things into the new house in San Antonio, we traded our jeans for our…
